The Saints outscored their opponent by 13 in the first quarter alone, winning the contested possession count by 11 and soundly defeating the Bulldogs at the coalface. The Bulldogs have always taken great satisfaction in their ability to dominate the middle, but some believe that Josh Dunkley and Lachie Hunter’s off-season exits may have permanently altered the team’s dynamic.

King called their performances inept and stated that the club was not prepared for the impact of losing Hunter and Dunkley.

In order to succeed in this competition, you need to stand out, and they did. Now, I believe they missed it and believed they could perhaps survive the losses of Hunter and Dunkley without necessarily having to replace those players, King remarked.

They believe they have sufficient information on the list to simply pull them in from the side. That has been shown to be untrue, which is concerning because those young forwards haven’t been able to take advantage of the opportunities. They’re just mediocre now.

In order to get their season back on track, Beveridge noted that the team would face challenges in the upcoming weeks, especially with a crucial sequence of away games. But the head coach remained upbeat, saying that their issues were more of a “troubleshooting” issue than a cause for concern.

The Bulldogs will play Richmond and the Brisbane Lions in Melbourne for their next two games before traveling to play Port Adelaide and Fremantle. Prior to the season, all four of those teams aimed to finish in the top four.